IGDA Lowering Membership Fees

Frictionless Insight is reporting that the International Game Developers Association is lowering their membership fees after a split with their former management organization. From the article: "Ordinary memberships now cost roughly half what they previously cost, and other memberships have been discounted somewhat. For example, a standard one-year membership has dropped from $100 to $48." This can only mean good things, as more beginnign developers become a part of the association.

Comments

No benefits

[Chemisor]

According to the FAQ on their website, the membership benefits are pretty much nonexistent. Now that the price is lower, you don't get the magazine any more.

Re:No benefits

[bitkari]

I know people say that they join for the magazine but the real reason people join the IGDA is so that they can attend the free (quite literally as-in-beer) bar sessions run locally by IGDA chapters.

Re:No benefits

[llopis]

Anybody in the game industry (in the US anyway) can get Game Developer Magazine for free anyway, so that was never much of an incentive.

The local IGDA chapters can be great, but it's hit and miss depending on your local one.

To me, the thing that made me join a few months ago, was seeing that they're continuing to push the issue of quality of life in the game industry.

Last year they put out the Quality of Life Whitepaper, and now they're following it up with a summit at this year's GDC. All of which is much more relevant every since ea_spouse stirred the hornet's nest.

I for one, I'm very glad they're around and pushing the issue, and will gladly give them some support so they can continue doing so.

Re:No benefits

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you think that the IGDA is mostly irrelevant to the game industry? I've seen your posts on the IGDA forums and note that you agree with them on their QoL stance, but do you think that as a collection of primarily indie and wannabe game developers they have any influence at all?

I'm basing my assumption that IGDA suffers from a lack of people with actual industry experience from the aforementioned forums. Maybe I'm off base, but it doesn't seem like they have much if anything to offer the industry. I've heard other game developers say the same.

Who?

[badasscat]

I worked in the game industry for 5 years (and I don't mean as a clerk at EB, I mean for a major game publisher) and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard of the IGDA. There may be people more on the business or legal side of things that deal with these guys but this is not an organization that most publishers or developers talk to on a daily or weekly basis.

From their web site, I can't even tell what it is they actually do. I see some advocacy topics, but that's about it - their "About the IGDA" section in the FAQ says absolutely nothing, and as someone else pointed out, their "membership benefits" are pretty non-existent. ("The main benefit of membership is knowing the you are developing your career and personally contributing the betterment of this industry by supporting the IGDA's mission." Uh... ok?).

It looks like they have about 5,700 members, but that's a tiny fraction of the total game industry.

Is this organization actually relevant in any way? What have they actually done to better the industry?

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing. I've been a developer for 8 years and these guys are total jokers. They put out a white paper now and then but other than that they do absolutely nothing useful. I can't imagine why anyone could pay to join as the benefits are completely non-existent.

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

...their "membership benefits" are pretty non-existent.

I disagree. They host special interest groups on:

Artificial Intelligence
Game Accessibility
Game Preservation
Human Resources
Indies
Online Games
Production
Quality Assurance
Students
Women in Game Development
Writing

They fund local chapters in dozens of cities. These, in turn, often provide members with monthly talks given by members of industry.

They provide discounts on:

Gamasutra merchandise - 30% discount
Game Institute classes - 10% discount
E3 Conference & Workshops - 20% discount
Game Developers Conference - $50 discount
Independent Games Festival entry fee - $50 discount
A. K. Peters books - 20% discount
Charles River Media books - 30% discount
Elsevier Science books - up to 40% discount
Game Developers Conference Proceedings - 30% discount
Game Developer Magazine back-issue CDs - 30% discount
Journal of Graphics Tools - 20% discount
New Riders books - 20% discount
O'Reilly & Associates books - 20% discount

It looks like they have about 5,700 members, but that's a tiny fraction of the total game industry.

Hundreds of CEOs, project leads, and so forth are members; I think it's more important to consider who's part of the organization than merely how many are part of it.

I worked in the game industry for 5 years (and I don't mean as a clerk at EB, I mean for a major game publisher) and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard of the IGDA.

This reflects more on you than the IGDA; most of those who are active in the community have had more than 5 years experience. Those higher up in an organization are more likely to seek out other members of the industry.

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I read a statistic from 2000 or 2001 that said there was a total of 24,000 people working in the game industry worldwide.

If I thought all 5700 members were actually in the game industry I'd say they had a notable presence. However, it seems like industry professionals are the minority in the organization. Indie developers and high-school students certainly deserve respect in their own way, but they don't deserve to steer the professional game industry.

You've never been to GDC?

[SirBruce]

IGDA has a pretty big presence every year at the Game Developer's Conference. Still, it's quite true that they don't have a huge amount of members. One of the reasons commonly cited for this was that the membership fee was so high, so this is a good first step.

Bruce

The Challenge of the Common Good

[JasonDellaRocca]

As the IGDA's executive director, it is always great to see public discussion of the org. Kinda sad, however, to read that what we do is pretty worthless :(

In part, I'll take the blame for not spending many org resources on marketing/promotion. Ironically, for all the problems we work on, one of our biggest challengs is simply getting the attention of developers (as we all know how busy and overworked they are ;)

More seriously, many developers simply don't care, or can't look much beyond their immediate task, their impending deadline, etc, to participate in the community around them - or to help work on the problems that will effect them and the industry beyond tomorrow...

To say that the IGDA is meaningless is to demonstrate your own ignorance, or rather, unwillingness to stop and read for more than 10seconds. To name just a few "real" accomplishments:

- helped thwart several goverment efforts to regulate/censor video games http://www.igda.org/censorship/lobbying.php

- developed a curriculum framework that has been used to guide almost every school that now offers a game degree/program http://www.igda.org/academia/curriculum_framework. php

- recently started a SIG, with Stuart Roch (executive producer at Shiny) as chair to lead efforts to formalize the production process http://www.igda.org/production/

- held a Business Summit at last GDC with 150 industry leaders to work on business issues within the industry (original vs licenses, contracts, royalties, etc) http://www.igda.org/biz/summit.php

- we present the Game Developers Choice Awards (arguably the "early oscars" of the game industry) each year at GDC and host a ceremony for 2000+ developers http://www.igda.org/awards

- we're doing all that Quality of Life stuff that was already mentioned http://www.igda.org/qol/

- Our Online Games SIG just released a ~100page Persistent Worlds white paper - for FREE. This kind of content normally has to be bought from analysts for thousands of dollars... This was posted on /. earlier... http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/13/ 2112231&tid=209

- we send 25 college students to GDC each year http://www.igda.org/scholarships/


I could go on...

In terms of members, we do have a diverse representation. But, to suggest we're just a bunch of student and newbie punks is incorrect. Yes, we have many student members (who, FYI, do not get to vote on org affairs), but we also have many of the world's top developers as members. Like who? Will Wright. Warren Spector. Richard Garriot. Raph Koster. Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk. Gabe Newell. I could certainly go on...

Admittedly, our online forums are not frequented by many pros/vets. That's fine, as that's not the goal of the forums, and the forums are not necessarily representative of the rest of the IGDA. The forums are just one more thing we provide to the community, for those who want to use it...

Anyway, don't mean to get ranty.

I guess we need to do more of that marketing stuff... But, if someone is just looking for free trinkets or promos from the "club", we don't have much to offer - and, quite frankly, that's all a waste of time...

Jason

Re:The Challenge of the Common Good

[SeifertC]

I know the goal of the IGDA is to help the industry as a whole, but I would like to offer up my own story of how the IGDA has helped me personally:

A little over two years ago I joined the IGDA and started attending meetings of my local chapter (NJ). I was a college student with no game development experience, no game development skills, and no clue as to how the games industry worked. Still, the group welcomed me, showed me resources on the web, told me what to watch out for and where to look for game projects, and shared their experiences and opinions on game development.

A year and change after that, I met Wade Tinney, a partner at Large Animal Games, and an active member of the IGDA community (via the Online Games SIG and NY chapter). Through that connection, I was eventually offered and internship, and today I am an associate producer and designer at Large Animal Games.

Obviously, there was a lot of hard work and other gigs that were dead-ends along the way, but the bottom line is this:

I would not have this job without the IGDA.

I'll rephrase:

I would not be as happy with my career and life without the IGDA.

I'll rephrase one more time:

I owe my career to the IGDA.

Without Jason and Rudy and Darrell and the thousands of other IGDA volunteers, I would never have become a game developer, and I would probably be working as a technical writer for a pharmaceutical giant in central Jersey *shudder*.

Anyway, I'll end my rant here, but I hope this at least sheds some light onto the benefit of joining the IGDA and becoming an active member and meeting attendee. Add that to the fact that yes, you are doing the right thing for your industry, and joining this group of hard-working, talented, and incredibly interesting people is 100% a no brainer.